New Primary Source Set: Incarceration

In an age of mass incarceration, tracing the origins and history of detainment is a meaningful exercise in understanding the current situation of imprisonment in the United States. Drawing on items such as images, maps, political cartoons, and reports available from the digital collections of the Library of Congress, a picture of incarceration in the America comes into focus. Woven into the primary source set is an emphasis on the role of prison reform and efforts to address prison living conditions and rehabilitation efforts. While this set is by no means exhaustive, it provides a range of sources aimed at giving a range of primary sources on a vast and complex subject.